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Landslide

by NPR

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Latest episodes

Engines of Outrage Pt. 1

February 6, 2025 · 32 min

Just a few decades ago most people used — and trusted — the same news sources. Now, Americans are siloed in separate ecosystems, consuming conflicting depictions of reality. Misinformation runs rampant. Conspiracy theories flourish. And…
The Exoneration of Richard Nixon

July 3, 2024 · 21 min

If the new Supreme Court decision, Trump v. U.S., had applied back in 1974, could President Richard Nixon have been prosecuted for Watergate? Or, would this decision shield Nixon from criminal charges? In this special bonus episode of…
When Money Became Speech

May 2, 2024 · 18 min

After Watergate, both parties cracked down on political spending with a new, strict campaign finance law. But instead of money in politics shrinking, it exploded. In this bonus episode, historian Marc C. Johnson joins Landslide host Ben…
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April 25, 2024 · 24 min

Before Fox News, the grassroots conservative activists known as "the New Right" spent decades attempting — and failing — to launch their own television news channel. In this bonus episode, Purdue historian Kathryn Cramer Brownell…
Making Abortion Partisan

April 18, 2024 · 21 min

Even in the years after Roe vs. Wade, the issue of abortion did not divide the political parties — or most Americans. But as Reagan, the New Right, and the Christian Right took control in the Republican Party, they saw its potential to…

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Landslide

April 4, 2024 · 51 min

Four years later. Jimmy Carter is now an embattled president, unpopular and facing a tough primary challenge. Meanwhile, Ronald Reagan storms to the Republican nomination, while wooing a powerful new bloc of voters into his conservative…
Outsider

March 28, 2024 · 37 min

Bruised after the primaries, the unpopular Ford looks headed for a blowout defeat in the 1976 general election. But his campaign adopts a clever strategy, and Carter struggles in the spotlight as the frontrunner. Gaffes, attack ads…
Ordinary Man

March 21, 2024 · 42 min

An unexpected contender ambushes the Democratic field. The one-term Georgia governor Jimmy Carter has planned a campaign of military precision for the Democratic nomination. With a wide grin, cold blood, and a dose of luck, he rises from…
Shootout

March 14, 2024 · 40 min

With the primaries over, the nomination hangs in the hands of a few remaining "unbound" delegates. Ford and Reagan scramble to win them over, as the battle to lead the Republican Party — and to decide its direction — comes down to a…
The New Right

March 7, 2024 · 41 min

The 1976 Republican primary looks finished. After a string of losses to Ford, Reagan's aides prepare to concede. But a network of right-wing groups has quietly organized, drumming up anger over integration, women's rights, gun laws, and…
Lightweight

February 29, 2024 · 42 min

The idea that Ronald Reagan can win is laughable. "Suicidal," writes the New York Times. Too extreme, too gaffe-prone, too unserious a candidate, the faded former actor has no chance to unseat the sitting president in the primaries — and…
Trust

February 22, 2024 · 40 min

Gerald Ford had planned to retire. But in the days and weeks after Watergate, the new president looks to rebuild Americans' collapsing trust in their government. His attempts to cool partisan tempers prove poisonously divisive. A…

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About the show

In the mid-1970s, the Republican Party looked on the verge of self-destruction. Until 1976. A political earthquake: A cutthroat, razor-close, deeply personal battle for the Republican nomination, and the party's identity. It resurrected the GOP, remade it as a conservative party, and pulled the country sharply to the right. Landslide is the story of the closest presidential primary race in American history, what followed, and how it reshaped the political parties — opening the partisan rifts that divide us today. Hosted by award-winning public radio journalist Ben Bradford.